Announcements

REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

At Westlands Water District Five Points Office
23050 W. Mt. Whitney Avenue
Five Points, CA 93624

July 15th, 2010
10:00 AM

PROPOSED AGENDA

1.ADDITIONS, DELETIONS OR CHANGES TO THE AGENDA (with necessary findings and approvals).
2.MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON June 17th, 2010 (review and approval).

3.PUBLIC COMMENTS – Comments at this time are limited to items not on this agenda and              within the Board’s scope of responsibility. Speakers may be limited to 3 minutes.

4.FINANCIAL REPORT – Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager, Mike Cuttone, Financial Officer, or directors will review the bank statements, receivables, payables and project/grant accounting reports and will make a recommendation to the Board for their consideration.

    a)Monthly financial information – bank statement, payables and receivables.
    b)Proposed operational budget for 2010-2011 – Resolution 2010-0X adopting the budget.

5.DIRECTOR REPORTS

    a)President’s Corner – the President will report on activities and issues of interest.
        i)Conflict of interest – FPPC comments.
    b)Directors’ reports – Directors who have attended meetings or been involved in recent   relevant resource management issues will have the opportunity to report to the Board.

6.   MANAGER’s REPORT

    a)     Final proposed “Five Year Plan” – Resolution 2010-0X adopting the plan.

    b)Status of the “Westside IRWMP”.

    c)      Others, including but not limited to; air quality, land fallowing, water conservation,     water quality, salinity management, bio-fuels, conservation tillage, and energy and    carbon management.


8. ADJOURNMENT – next tentative meeting August 19th at the Erro Ranch.

NOTE: The agenda items may not be presented in the order they are listed. Persons wishing to discuss an item that was taken out of order will have the opportunity to do so. All agenda items listed are considered to be discussion and/or action items.

Individuals needing special assistance in order to participate in this meeting should contact the District Secretary for such assistance or accommodation prior to the meeting. The District Secretary can be telephoned at 559.230.9050.

WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meeting Minutes
June 17th, 2010

Call to Order:

President Phil Erro called the meeting to order at 10:07AM. The following people attended:

Directors: President Erro, Linda Anderson, Gene Brughelli, Jorgen Clausen, John Diener, Steve Elgorriaga and Craig Finster

Others: Secretary-Manager Sarge Green, Dave Durham and Jon Chilcote, USDA-NRCS, Ken Johnson, CA-DWR, Clarence Finch, WRCD Consultant and Dan Schara, Westlands Water District,

A sign up sheet was circulated and is made a part of these minutes.

Agenda and Minutes

A quorum was present and the Board members unanimously found the agenda adequate for the meeting. Director Diener made a motion seconded by Director Clausen to accept the May meeting minutes and the motion was approved unanimously.

Public Comments:

David Cehrs, a Fresno area geologist was prepared to discuss groundwater issues however his presentation required a computer and screen and neither were currently available. The presentation will be postponed and made a part of the agenda at the August meeting.

Reports:

Financial Report; the manager presented the following. The current bank statement was available for review. There were sufficient funds to allow for payment of some limited bills. The list was presented by the manager and on a motion by Director Diener seconded by Director Brughelli, the warrants were approved for signature. The manager also presented the first reading of a draft operations budget for 2010-2011 starting in July. The budget will be brought back to the Board for final approval at the July meeting.

Director Reports; President Erro reported on updates to the conflict-of-interest-code. The category of consultants was added to categories of persons covered by the code. The draft was ready to be sent to the Board of Supervisors. Sarah Olson of the FPPC sent the District notice of the “biennial review” requirements of all conflict-of-interest codes. Since the RCD is multi-County, we are under the direct jurisdiction of the FPPC. The implementation of the “code” will require all the categories of persons (including Directors and consultants or contractors who work 30 days or more for the District) covered to file a “Form 700” each year due on March 1st. President Erro also reported he received a call from Jamie at Coalinga High and that there were “no trees” (eucalyptus or other) available from the greenhouse.

Director Anderson mentioned a few items. NRCS Soil Scientist Kerry Arroues is finishing a soil survey for the Clear Creek area. Off-road access from Condon Road is undergoing a NEPA process but other road-building is occurring into the Los Gatos watershed.

Finally, Director Diener summarized the demonstration/presentation of the New Sky brine separation process that occurred the past two days at Fresno State.

Managers Report; the manager discussed the overall content and tenor of the recent “International Groundwater Conference” held in San Francisco and sponsored by UC Davis and the Water Education Foundation. The issue of groundwater control; how and when, seem to a foremost issue in many areas of the world’s groundwater basins. The manager also summarized the recently released USGS report on the water use by tamarisk. The report summarized that tamarisk does not use more water than native species per se, but that it is not native and still may be a threat to habitat.

Partner Reports; Dave Durham presented an oral report on the latest activities of the NRCS. The recent funds expansion from stimulus and other emergency declaration sources has allowed for significant more contracts for water efficiency in Fresno County. There are 139 new contracts with 1.9 million for the Kings River Conservation District service area, and a slightly less amount for the Westlands area. The systems include drip on row crops in Westlands. The Service also participated in the recent RC&D workshop on air quality and agriculture. A new item that has come up is the European grape moth. I has showed up in Kingsburg and an area quarantined as a result. Emergency funds of one million dollars have been allocated for this effort. The result of failure to control this pest is significant bunch rot. The range-clipping survey found the conditions improved from the recent dry years but still below the average of the 1980’s. Finally, Farm Bill air quality improvement implementation is still also replacing tractors.

Dan Schara summarized recent activities at Westlands. Satellite imagery continues to be a valuable tool to show irrigation effectiveness. “Hot spots” of under-irrigation continue to persist and show up with the imagery. Dan had a written report for the balance of his information that is attached and made a part of these minutes. Clarence Finch reported on recent activity with the planting of additional new thorn-less clones of Argentine mesquite. He also had a written report on these activities that is attached and part of these minutes. Ken Johnson also handed out a report on recent activities of the Department of Water Resources on the salt and drainage experiments, including; Forever Water, the enhanced solar evaporator, Ag Water/New Sky, a drainage treatment implementation project in Panoche Water District and a new drainage management project in Banta-Carbona Irrigation District near Tracy, CA. His report is attached and a part of these minutes also.

Finally, President Erro announced he would be leaving for Malawi, Africa for the last three months of the year and would ask Vice-President Brughelli to run the meetings until a new President was elected in January 2011. He also proposed a barbecue at Erro Farms for the July meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:47 am unanimously by the Directors present.

Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager

Grant Administration Policy

The Westside RCD supports farmers, ranchers, and others in the District who seek grants to experiment with new crops, perfect water treatment technologies, or do any number of other conservation-related projects that can enhance the sustainability of agriculture in our service area. We request that individuals and organizations who want the Westside RCD to administer their grant do the following:
1) Submit an outline of the grant proposal that states the objective of the grant, the activities required to achieve the objective, the duration of the grant, and the amount of money being sought; and 2) State the source of funds and the rules for applying for the grant.

The grant seeker can write the grant proposal himself, hire a grant writer, or ask the Westside RCD to find a grant writer. The grant seeker will pay the grant writer, and the Westside RCD will not be liable in any way for the performance of the grant writer.

The Westside RCD will determine how it will be paid by the donor and will inform the grant seeker the percentage of the grant amount it will need to administer the grant. This is typically 15% of the grant amount but varies with the complexity of the project and the personnel-hours needed to administer the grant. If the grant seeker only wants the Westside RCD to pay vendors and other service providers, a minimal administrative charge can be negotiated. Grant contracts will stipulate that the donor will pay the Westside RCD before it disburses grant funds to grant writers, vendors and others.

The grant administration services of the Westside RCD will be available to any farmer, rancher, or landowner doing business in the District. Once a donor awards a grant to the grant seeker, the Westside RCD will announce the grant proposal on its web site. All requests for bids to do project work, grant activities, expenditures, and other grant transactions will be posted on the Westside RCD web site from that point on.

NOTE: The agenda items may not be presented in the order they are listed. Persons wishing to discuss an item that was taken out of order will have the opportunity to do so. All agenda items listed are considered to be discussion and/or action items.

Individuals needing special assistance in order to participate in this meeting should contact the District Secretary for such assistance or accommodation prior to the meeting. The District Secretary can be telephoned at 559.647.9198.